1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to electronic musical instruments, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for controlling scale practice of an electronic musical instrument in which a keyboard form and a sheet music with a note variation are displayed for the scale practice, a pushed note is compared with a displayed note and the compared result is recognized by the user, so that the user can readily perform the scale practice for his self.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a block diagram of a conventional apparatus for controlling scale practice of an electronic musical instrument. As shown in this drawing, the conventional scale practice control apparatus comprises a function select switching section 1 for selecting a desired one of various functions of the electronic musical instrument according to a user's selection, a microprocessor 2 for outputting a control signal to perform the function selected by the function select switching section 1, a display unit 3 for displaying a sheet music of a tune selected according to the control signal from the microprocessor 2, and a keyboard 4 for allowing the user to play the electronic music instrument according to the sheet music displayed on the display unit 3.
The function select switching section 1 includes a scale practice switch 11 for selecting a scale practice mode, increment and decrement switches 12 and 13 for selecting the tune for the scale practice, a start switch 14 for starting the play of the tune selected by the increment and decrement switches 12 and 13, and a stop switch 15 for stopping the scale practice mode.
The microprocessor 2 pre-stores a plurality of tunes for the scale practice.
The operation of the conventional scale practice control apparatus with the above-mentioned construction will hereinafter be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the conventional scale practice control apparatus in FIG. 1. First, the microprocessor 2 checks whether the scale practice switch 11 on the function select switching section 1 is pushed by the user. If it is checked that the scale practice switch 11 is pushed by the user, the microprocessor 2 checks whether the increment switch 12 is selected by the user. If it is checked that the increment switch 12 is selected by the user, the microprocessor 2 increments a tune number by one. On the contrary, if it is checked that the increment switch 12 is not selected by the user, the microprocessor 2 checks whether the decrement switch 13 is selected by the user. If it is checked that the decrement switch 13 is selected by the user, the microprocessor 2 decrements the tune number by one. In this manner, the tune is selected for the scale practice.
If the tune for the scale practice is selected as mentioned above, the microprocessor 2 checks whether the start switch 14 is selected by the user. If it is checked that the start switch 14 is selected by the user, the sheet music of the selected tune is displayed on the display unit 3.
Then, the user performs the scale practice by playing the keyboard 4 according to the sheet music displayed on the display unit 3. Upon completion of the selected tune, the operation proceeds to the next tune to perform repeatedly the scale practice.
At that time that the stop switch 15 on the function select switching section 1 is selected by the user, the scale practice is stopped.
However, the above-mentioned conventional scale practice control apparatus has a disadvantage in that the tunes for the scale practice are pre-stored in the microprocessor, resulting in a lack in a variety of the scale practice contents. This results in a reduction in the practice effect. Also, it is impossible to perform a note hearing test.